As a centrifugal separation apparatus for centrifugally separating a sample such as blood, the following type of apparatus is known in the art. The apparatus employs a plurality of buckets swingably attached to the circumference of a disk-like rotator. Sample containers holding a sample to be processed are fitted in the buckets, and the rotator is rotated at high speed for centrifugal separation processing. (Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2004-151024).
In the above apparatus, the sample containers are sequentially conveyed from a processing line, where the sample is subjected to biochemical analysis and various pre-processing, to the rotators of a plurality of centrifugal separators. When a predetermined number of sample containers have been conveyed, the rotators of the centrifugal separators are rotated for centrifugal separation processing. When the centrifugal separation processing has been performed for a predetermined time, the rotators are stopped, and the sample containers are sequentially taken out and returned to the processing line.
If the number of sample containers is large, the time required for conveying them to the rotators and returning them to the processing line is inevitably long. As a result, the efficiency of the centrifugal separation processing of the above-mentioned centrifugal separation apparatus decreases. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a centrifugal separation apparatus and a centrifugal separation method which ensure high processing efficiency.
The embodiment described herein enables enhancing the processing efficiency of centrifugal separation processing.